The purpose of this study was to verify the existing model of the “military economy” by clarifying the development process of the weapons industry and the economic activities of companies in the military sector and the arms-related sector in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The weapons industry began with the construction of an arms factory in Pyongyang in 1945, and the industry was dispersed inland during the Korean War. These dispersed factories were expanded after the war, and in the 1960s, advanced factories, including electronics facilities in Huichon, were constructed with assistance from China. In parallel with the increasing production of side jobs, such as vegetables and meat, in military areas, exports from the military and arms-related sectors expanded in 1970s, when trade companies, including Maibong , Moran of the People’s Army and Lyongaksan of the Second Economy Commission, were organized. In recent years, side-business organizations, weapon manufacturers, and trade companies of the military sector and the arms-related sector came to provide new products and new services to domestic civil consumers. The existence of autonomous economic activities by the military and arms-related sectors outside the state plan was confirmed by the construction of weapons plants, the expansion of side-jobs and the organization of trade companies.

Projects by irrigation associations constituted a core component of agricultural policies aimed at increasing rice production in colonial Korea. This paper presents a case study of the organizational management of the Gobu Irrigation Association in North Chŏlla Province, which was established in 1916, and discusses the following two findings. First, during the process of electing the association’s president and council members, a small group of members seized the initiative. Among these Japanese corporations and landowners, the Toyo Takushoku Company, which was both a large landowner and a creditor of the association, along with other large landowning members, insisted on the strict collection of association fees, reflecting their own interests, and institutionalized the policy. Second, the system established to manage the association involved a bureaucratic division of labor, and a centralized system of instruction and communication for the distribution of water on trunk–branch canals was implemented.

In general, the organizational management of the Gobu Irrigation Association was centralized and bureaucratic. However, a centralized water distribution system was supplemented by the customary water distribution system implemented by beneficiary local peasants in communities living along the terminal canals.

This article reexamines the politico-economic significance of U.S. loans to China around the time of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on July 7, 1937, examining U.S.-China economic diplomacy from the official declaration of the end of the Cotton and Wheat Loan in April 1935 to the announcement of the 25-million-dollar loan (Tung Oil Loan) in February 1939, and reveals the continuity and transformation of material loans to China during the 1930s. In April 1935, the President of the American Reconstruction Finance Corporation announced the termination of the Cotton and Wheat Loan, although the disposal of lent-raw cotton continued to be discussed in subsequent negotiations. How did the nationalist government of China secure U.S. loans under the Washington System in East Asia? The author clarifies the historical significance and impact on China’s monetary reforms in November 1935 through the political and economic support that China received from the United States.

This paper aimed to elucidate the financial activities of pawn shops in Singapore in the early 20th century, which provided microfinance services to people in the Singapore Chinese community, through an analysis of the research report entitled “Chinese Pawn Shop in Singapore” (『新嘉坡ニ於ケル當舗』) published by the Bank of Taiwan in 1919. Few studies on the history of finance in Singapore have examined the historical origin and business model of pawnbrokers as providers of microfinance services to the local community because relevant historical materials are scarce. However, the Bank of Taiwan’s report provides valuable knowledge about the history of the pawnbroker business in the early 20th century. A review of this historical material revealed how pawn shops functioned and the socio-economic role they played in the Singapore Chinese community of the day.